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Wheeler, 67, is a longtime Obama loyalist. During Obama’s first presidential campaign, Wheeler and his wife, Carol, spent six weeks in Iowa, where they worked the phones and knocked on doors for the candidate. Wheeler also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Obama’s two presidential campaigns.

He told C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb, “The six weeks that I spent in Iowa are going to rank right up there as the best six weeks of my life.”

The White House official said of the nomination: “Tom Wheeler is an experienced leader in the communications technology field who shares the president’s

Wheeler will replace Democrat Julius Genachowski, who took over as chairman in 2009 and pushed the agency to look at telecommunications differently with broadband supplanting old technologies like broadcasting and telephone service.

Liberal groups and Sen. Jay Rockefeller pushed for a woman, with the West Virginia Democrat urging the White House to pick his former aide, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Rockefeller and 36 other senators penned a letter to the president March 22. The lawmakers emphasized that Rosenworcel’s selection would help the White House “avoid possible delays created by other nominees and keep the agency moving forward.”

That letter was followed by one from the tech policy corner and included many Obama supporters. They threw their support behind Wheeler.

“Tom has had an impressive career in the telecommunications and high-tech field that makes him eminently qualified for this position,” the letter read.

Other liberal groups thought it was time for a woman in the post — and they expressed concerns about Wheeler’s stint as a lobbyist for both the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and CTIA, the wireless industry trade group.

Some groups expressed concern about Wheeler’s past a telecom lobbyist.

“America continues to face significant telecommunications challenges, including high costs, slow speeds, abysmal consumer protections, and far too many unserved communities. Now, more than ever, we need a FCC Chairman who will serve as a champion for the public interest, take on industry giants, and make the hard decisions necessary to restore American competitiveness,” said Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. “I am skeptical that the former chief lobbyist of the wireless and cable industries will be capable of holding his former clients accountable for their ongoing shortcomings.”

But some of those on the left were forgiving of Wheeler’s lobbying past because he was representing what were then disruptive technologies fighting entrenched incumbent industries.

Wheeler does have a strong telecommunications pedigree. On the 20th anniversary of the cable television industry in 1995, Wheeler was selected as one of the 20 most influential individuals in the industry’s history. On the 25th anniversary of the cellular telecommunications industry in 2008, he was named one of the top 10 innovators in the wireless industry.